A friend who recently moved back overseas after a 2 year work relocation stint in San Jose texted asking if I could call her ex-landlord/property manager to ask for the rent deposit back. He had not been responding to her text messages since she left the country. Her rent deposit refund was due mid July (she vacated the unit mid June, and left the country the next day).

I tried to reach the manager a few times to no avail. I also called the front desk but they tried to shrug me off when I asked about the rent deposit refund. I then found a Yelp link to this manager's company and from the reviews it appears that this guy isn't an honest person. I dug a little deeper and found on the California Bureau of Real Estate website that he had his licence revoked due to fraud. I don't expect he will be returning my or my friend's calls/messages any time soon, and he knows that she's not coming back to the US anymore so he's probably not motivated to return the deposit.

Is anyone able to advise us on how to move forward? Can I represent her in small claims court or does she have to do it herself? The amount is for $1,400. Is this guy still able to be a property manager if he has previously had his licence revoked and is not currently licensed?

These are the links I found, (@moderators: these is public information so I assume it's ok to share these, but feel free to remove as you see fit)